A report released November 2 by the Arizona State University (ASU) Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy and the Morrison Institute for Public Policy summarizes the views of a panel of behavioral health experts convened in July to discuss the state’s behavioral health system. The report finds that 35 percent of the state’s adults with serious mental illness do not qualify for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state’s Medicaid program. 

From the summary:

Some panelists argued that the fundamental impediment to system improvement is a core misalignment between legislative intent (as specified in state statute), executive decision making (as expressed in successive state administrations’ response to the Arnold settlement) and the level of state funding, particularly for non-Medicaid/AHCCCS-eligible individuals and families. Despite their policy differences, however, they were united in the desire to see positive system change and to preserve funding levels for mentally troubled Arizonans in order to avert a human and fiscal crisis of major proportions.

Full report: http://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/publications-reports/AzPublicBehavHealthCareSys-CriticalIssuesCriticalTimes

Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy and Morrison Institute for Public Policy. (2009). Arizona’s public behavioral health care system: critical issues in critical times.